MCC and AFL support for Melbourne Football Club

Dec 19, 2008

The Australian Football League (AFL) and Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) have come to an agreement to provide Melbourne Football Club with a $2 million support package for 2009.

The agreement was reached this afternoon with the MCC agreeing to increase to $1m its funding support for the Melbourne Football Club. This followed the approval by the AFL Commission on Monday of a recommendation to increase the Annual Special Distribution funding from $250,000 to $1m.

AFL chief executive officer Andrew Demetriou said both organisations recognised the importance of a financially strong Melbourne Football Club and had worked together to come up with the funding arrangement.

"Football and the Melbourne Cricket Club have a strong and long-standing partnership and this is another example of us working together," Mr Demetriou said.

“The AFL and MCC have extended their support to the Melbourne Football Club as Melbourne begins its revival under a new committee and management,” said MCC chief executive officer Stephen Gough. “A viable MFC is important to the MCC and the competition as a whole.”

Both organisations will work with Melbourne Football Club in the coming days to finalise the details of the arrangement.

The CEO of the Melbourne Football Club, Cameron Schwab, welcomed the agreement and paid tribute to both the AFL and the Melbourne Cricket Club for its support.

“The relationships we have with the AFL and the MCC are critical to the future of our football club and this funding is vital to the future of the club. Our eventual goal is to get to the stage where we are not reliant on this support and – with the support of our members and supporters – we think we can achieve that in the future,” Mr Schwab said.

“Since Jim Stynes and the new board took over, we have continued to press ahead in our campaign to tackle debt and build our revenue base.

Our members and supporters have shown fantastic support for the club by contributing $3 million to our debt demolition rally and to secure $2m in funding from the AFL and MCC at Christmas time puts us in a good position to get on with the job in 2009."